Year 6 Mastery: Comparing and Contrasting the Viking era with the Slave Trade in Britain

Today, Year 6 completed their final History lesson on the Liverpool Slave Trade. In order to really display what they had learnt over the course of this trem, they created an extended piece of writing comparing their final topic of year 5 (the Vikings) and their first topic in year 6 (the Liverpool Slave Trade). This was an opportunity for Year 6 to utilise all of their learning in a new way by examining both time periods and making links between them as well as comparing these times to their own lives.  

Accommodation and the Perspective of Slaves: Liverpool Slave Trade 

This afternoon, Year 6 explored the accommodation of the Slaves on board the transportation ships used in the Slave trade. They studied a secondary source of the legal case of 'the Zong', an actual ship that was hit by a disease that wiped out 60 Africans on board. Captain Luke Collingwood decided to throw another 131 Africans overboard to stop the spread of the disease. Under British law, the 'loss' of the slaves would be underwritten by the insurers, however, if the slaves were unsellable as a result of the illness, then the fault would be the ship's Captain and crew. The claim for compensation by the Captain failed becuase there was sufficient water on board the ship despite what he actually claimed. Notwithstandng the failed outcome for the Captain and crew, they were never charged or prosecuted for the murder of so many lives! The case reveals just how little regard people had for the African slaves and also exmaines in an obscure manner, the dreadful conditions on board the ship.

 Religion and Beliefs during the Slave Trade

Today, we explored the religion and beliefs of the people during the Liverpool Slave Trade. We were able to use various sources to explore the views of society and religious beliefs at the time. We were able to examine how both the rich and poor benefitted from the slave trade. The children raised some uncomfortable facts such as the poor being given opportunities with jobs, skills and a regular income which brought them stability and with that, a desire for the slave trade to continue. The children found this most surprising and a little uncomfortable!

The Impact of the Slave Trade in Liverpool

This afternoon, we independently explored and evaluated the legacy of the slave trade in Liverpool and how our shameful past has influenced and impacted much of our architecture, music and culture in the city to this day. In order to show our understanding of what we have learnt throughout this topic, we created a presentation which embodied our prior knowledge of the slave trade and how its legacy can still be seen around Liverpool. 

Daniel says of the topic: "I have very much enjoyed learning about the Liverpool Slave Trade as I didn't know too much about it. Once you know about our past in Liverpool, it shows you a whole different view of how our city came to be. Although some of the lessons were quite sad to learn about, I think that it is important that we know about the city's past because it is something that we must acknowledge in our lives."